The storm has finally arrived. Developed by Evolution Studios and published by Sony Computer Entertainment, Motorstorm represents one of the many games to showcase the Playstation 3 prior to its release. Not only was it a true testament to the visual capabilities of the PS3, but its managed to deliver excellence on nearly all fronts. How did the finalized version compare to what we saw prior to its launch? PCN delves into Sony’s off-road racer for the Playstation 3.

The story behind Motorstorm is quite simple. Motorstorm is a large festival that attracts thousands for a week of racing, anarchy, and raucous music. Think of it as Woodstock, but with mud and off road vehicles. There really is no story to Motorstorm, yet there are rarely any stories to a racing game of this genre.

The main mode, “Play Mode”, is a single player campaign where you attempt to win a series of events and races scattered across Monument Valley, Arizona. The simplicity to the Play Mode is almost equivalent to what the story has to offer, which is very minimal. Play Mode features multiple tickets that spread across four different levels of difficulty. When you begin your game, only three tickets will be available. Within each ticket are races. Sometimes a ticket will have four races that you will have to compete in while some may only have one. In order to unlock more tickets, you will have to get within the top three in each race to qualify for new races to participate in.

Apart from unlocking new races, you will be able to gain brand new vehicles that you will be able to put to your disposal as you see fit. Unfortunately, most of the races that you join will already have a predetermined vehicle that you can use, so don’t assume that you can use any of the vehicles on any map in Motorstorm. Rarely, you will come across a race where they give you the liberty of choosing, but don’t expect this luxury often.

One troubling aspect of Motorstorm is the lack of courses and maps. There are only eight maps. Obviously the player will get the feeling of replaying a level multiple times, but this certainly has its advantages during online play, but we will get to that momentarily.